For easy reference comparison, here are the two sides rotated properly and pasted side-by-side:
This is Potosi mint (Bolivia) - almost certainly Philip III, 1610s or so.
To the eyes of someone who has a good amount of experience with cobs (salvaged AND not) and has gotten pretty decent at recognizing casting mushiness/porosity vs. environmentally-caused mushiness/porosity... the surface of the piece is very questionable. I wouldn't categorically condemn it from these pics alone, but the detail overall is just too "mushy" (again, even accounting for water-caused erosion). In addition, there are numerous "discrete" stand-alone pores, even on the reverse which displays better detail with less "seawear". That is a telltale sign on cast cobs.
The other thing which MAY be an issue, from what can be made out from the photos and the given weight of approx. 7 grams, is WHAT DENOMINATION it's supposed to be. At that weight, a genuine piece could only be a 2 Reales or possibly a 4 Reales. Weights as made for this era of Potosi were pretty consistent right around 6.85g as made for a 2R and 13.7g for a 4R. Even if the scale is rounding to the whole gram or maybe even slightly "off"... if this piece is a genuine 2R, I would expect a weight really no higher than possibly as much as 5.5g. If it were a genuine 4R with this amount of loss to the elements, I expect a weight in the 9-10g range, not as low as 7-8g.
The denomination mark is blobbishly visible to the right of the shield. It first appears could be Roman "II" as 2R... however, there looks to be a "o" over that mark which would appear only on a 4R, not 2R (o over IIII... due to Spanish "cuatro" ending in o).
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PS - to this point:
Quote:
I can assure you, it was not planted there.
I have read probably a dozen forum threads over the years where people posted "cobs" they seemingly truthfully found, metal detected, etc. on beaches - and they were known or obvious replicas. Basically, some people get their jollies by messing with around with the treasure hunter/metal detectorist types so they get all excited about their "treasure" and then eventually get told it's not. It's unfortunate, but it is a known thing.
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Posted 03/25/2022 07:32 am
